Fallen Embers

The next morning Mike awoke and stretched at the good night sleep he had just had. When his arms extended to his sides and was met with empty bed he sat up with a start. Did he and Sabrina sleep together or was it just a dream? He thought that he had imagined the whole thing until he heard the shower running in the master bathroom. He groaned and ran a hand through his sleep disheveled hair. He had no idea on how to go about dealing with what happened. With a heavy bladder he knew that he was going to have to face Sabrina sooner than later, so he threw his legs over the side of the bed and without covering himself up went into the bathroom.

Sabrina heard the door click open as she was in the shower. Mike walked in and went over to the toilet and relieved himself. She noticed that he was much different from Tre body wise and she took in the look of his lean but muscular frame. Mike finished up and walked over to the shower and opened up the door and joined her. He moved into the spray of the shower head to get warm and then turned to face Sabrina.

"We need to talk." he began.

"Michael, me first." he nodded his acceptance of that and so she continued. "Thank you for last night. Everything about last night. I needed to have a good cry and you were there for me. Thank you. I also needed to be reminded that I was a woman and wanted sexually by a man. You gave me back something I was missing since Tre and I spilt. I had begun to feel as though I was unwanted and unloved in every sense of those words. You gave me back my confidence so to speak."

Mike was taken back. He wasn't expecting this from Sabrina. He didn't know what to say to the woman. He just looked at her as she continued on speaking.

"And DAMN Michael, WOW, you are hot in bed." she said with a smile as she watched the man turn beet red. She chuckled as she spoke again. "What happened last night was two friends needing a release. It was sex; granted, it was mind blowing, hot, wild monkey sex, but that's all. I think that we can keep this on the low down and not let it go out of these rooms. I that this will help us become closer as friends and have a special relationship that no one else will share."

Mike looked at Sabrina as she spoke and realized that she was right. He thought that he had wanted her, but now knew that he just wanted the sex. She was right that this now meant that they would now have a different relationship. That was okay, he knew that he had a true friend in her and she had the same in him. That when all was said in done in their lives, they would always have each other to fall back upon. He smiled at her and bent his knees and grabbed her around the waist and brought her into him. "So does this mean that what happened during the night won't ever happen again?" he asked as he nuzzled her neck.

"Well this MEANS that we have a different relationship then just regular friends." she answered. "This means that we are officially friends with 'once and a while' benefits."

He laughed as he kissed her neck and took her in the shower and showed her what mind blowing, hot, wild monkey sex really was.

Later on after having coffee with Mike in his kitchen, Sabrina called a cab to pick her up to take her back to Rudy's to get her car. When the cab honked his horn outside Mike's door, she stood up and went over to where he was sitting. She dropped her head and grazed his lips with her own. "Thank you Michael, this meant a lot to me and I will never forget it." And with that she walked out of the kitchen and out of his house.

Upon returning to Rudy's, she went inside and decided to grab lunch. Billie was already there and smiled as she walked through the door. He patted the seat next to him and Sabrina joined with a kiss to his cheek she sat down next to him. After getting her drink, she took a sip and turned to look at Billie who still hadn't said a word.

"What?" she asked nervously.

"Nothing, just thinking to myself that you are looking a little better today."

"Well, I got a really good night's sleep and I can't remember that last one I have had." she replied.

Billie just raised his eyebrow at Sabrina and sipped on his coffee. He knew Mike had gone after her yesterday and never came back to the studio and her truck was in the parking lot when he got here and Brittney was out of town. He wondered what his two best friends did last night, but decided that if anything happened, one or both of them would say something to him in their own time.

"So, I'm glad I caught you Sabrina, I need to talk to you about your record."

"Oh?"

"Yea, I gave it to Adie to listen to and she and I want to sign you to Adeline Records."

Sabrina sat back and looked at Billie Joe. "What? Really, you think its that good that you want to sign me?"

"Yea, we talked about it and there it will be a open ended contract. No deadlines, no numbers of albums you have to pump out. Just record when you want, release when ever. No pressures."

"Put that in writing and you have a deal." she said with a smile on her face.

Billie pulled out his blackberry and dialed a number. "Hi, she said yes. Can you fax a copy of the contract over to her lawyers," he looked at Sabrina to supply the fax number. "Thanks, bye"

The woman smiled as she pulled out her own phone and scrolled through her numbers, smiling as she hit send upon finding the correct one. "Hey Daniel, it me. You should be getting a contract faxed to you in a few minutes. Look it over and make sure its okay. Let me know when you're done so I can sign it. Yup, it's a record deal with Adeline Records. Yup. Great, thanks. Bye" with a flip of her wrist she shut her phone and smiled at Billie. "Looks like you will have another artist signed to your label soon."

He raised his coffee cup up to clink her glass and they toasted each other.

Within the hour, Sabrina was at Adeline records with Billie and Adie as she signed the contract bringing her into the Adeline Records fold. Minutes later press releases were sent out announcing the new deal to the world. Sabrina called Toby to let him know what was happening so he would be able to field the calls from reporters. She also had Toby messenger over to Samuel Bayer's office a copy of the CD along with a note about the song she wanted as the first single/video and some thoughts about the video. She was still in Adie's office 30 minutes later when her phone rang.

Sabrina smiled at the number and clicked on the speaker phone for Billie and Adie to hear. Soon Sam Bayer's hoarse voice filled the room at mach 500 talking about ideas for the video. He was taking her basic thoughts and running wild with them going in the direction she wanted to go. About 10 minutes later, they agreed to a face to face meeting in LA to hammer out the details of him being hired to do the video. Upon hanging up with Sam, Sabrina turned to Adie and Billie. "Well it's all set. Sam's acceptance of the song was the final part in deciding on the first single, 'Only Women Bleed'."

Billie looked at Sabrina with concern, "That's a slow song, do you really want to come out of the gate with that?"

"Well I know it's slow, but aside from 'Don't' it is the strongest song on the album. "I want to send a powerful statement and that's the song to do that with. It's my Boulevard of Broken Dreams and I think it has the potential to do as well as Boulevard if not better." she said while sticking her tongue out at Billie.

"Well okay, if you say so." Billie agreed with a shrug. "We'll call Toby and start getting things set up for album photo shoots and the like. I want to get MTV to come out and shoot a 'Diary' and 'Making of.' with you getting the final touches on the album and doing the video shoot. I think it will help get you exposed again. MTV has always loved you in Derringer, and now we have to get them to still love you on your own."

"I also think we should get you on Saturday Night Live once the video drops." Adie added. "That would be a great re-entry into the world of music. Oh and let's get you into Howard Stern and David Letterman while you're out in New York City also."

"You know, I had an idea." Sabrina started. "Remember when the world premiere of a music video was a major thing at MTV? Well I was thinking about calling in a favor and having a big MTV blowout for the world premiere of the new video. Do a big interview and what not and roll the video out like olden times."

"Well let's get on it." Billie Joe said enthusiastically.

Sabrina left Oakland later that day with promise and hope about her new album. As she landed in LA, for the first time since Tre and her spilt, she actually was looking forward to tomorrow as she begin a new chapter in her life.